New School Year Approaches For Little Orleans Students

With the appeals process with the State Board of Education moving at a deliberate pace, parents of middle school students in the Little Orleans area are brainstorming on how to handle the fast approaching new school year. A parents group has filed an appeal with the state against the Allegany County school board’s June decision to phase out the so-called “Washington County option” program which has allowed those students to attend Hancock Middle-High School for the past ten years. High school students would be grand fathered in, but under the local board’s plan- middle schoolers would be targeted for Cumberland this coming school year. Linda Martin has been one of the spokespersons for the parents, and she says that while they await a ruling from the state board on their appeal- they are essentially in limbo when it comes to what to do with their kids on August 24th- the first day of the new school year…